David James Archuleta is an American singer. He was born on December 28, 1990 in Miami, Florida to James Jeffrey Archuleta, of Spanish descent, and Xiomara Guadalupe Mayorga, a Honduran immigrant. He has four siblings. Archuleta’s family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah when Archuleta was 13 and currently lives in Murray, Utah. He once suffered partial vocal paralysis but declined risky surgery and has said he feels he is almost fully recovered.
Archuleta started singing at age six, inspired by a Les Misérables video. “That musical is what started all of this,” he said. He started performing publicly at age 10 when he participated in the Utah Talent Competition singing “I Will Always Love You” by Dolly Parton and received a standing ovation and won the Child Division.
Archuleta’s mother is from Honduras, and much of the music he listened to as a child, according to an interview aired on American Idol, was Latin-influenced. She also “was big on dancing” according to Archuleta, and would “make” him dance to traditional music with his older sister. He also listened to jazz music, he said, from his father’s collection as well as gospel, pop, rock and “soulful music.” In a later interview, he revealed that his father was a jazz musician. Archuleta also said he enjoys Broadway musicals.
On his American Idol “Fast Facts” page, Archuleta cites his musical influences as Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Kirk Franklin and Bryan Adams When asked to list his top pop artists, he cited Natasha Bedingfield, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey Michael Jackson Stevie Wonder, Bryan Adams Kirk Franklin, and Robbie Williams. He also listed Tamyra Gray and Elliott Yamin as his favorite former American Idol contestants. Like Yamin and another singer he admires, John Mayer, Archuleta tries to infuse his pop selections with a soulful vibe.
Archuleta won his ticket to the Hollywood final auditions with a performance of John Mayers “Waiting on the World to Change” at the San Diego tryouts held at Qualcomm Stadium July 30 and July 31, 2007. He was 16 during the Hollywood auditions where he sang Bryan Adams “Heaven” to unanimous praise and because he was not yet 18, had to attend school while a part of American Idol’s seventh season. His parents were there because he was a minor. Archuleta also took advantage of the decision to allow contestants to play musical instruments when he accompanied himself on piano for his performances of “Another Day in Paradise” and “Angels.”
In June 2008, Jive Records announced that Archuleta signed a recording contract and his debut album will be released later in 2008, after the “American Idols tour”. The three songs he performed in the American Idol finale, “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”, “In This Moment”, and “Imagine”, became top-10 downloads on iTunes. All three debuted on the finale; “Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of June 7, 2008. “Imagine” entered at #36 (giving Archuleta his first top forty hit), “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” at #58, and “In This Moment” entered at #60. That same week he landed three songs on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, where his versions of “Longer”, “Think of Me“, and “Angels” debuted at #15, #19, and #24 respectively. On the July 17, 2008 edition of So You Think You Can Dance, Archuleta’s cover of “Imagine” by John Lennon was featured by Katee Shean and William Wingfield with their pas de deux dance number.
In August 2008, Archuleta’s first single “Crush” was premiered on Z100, a New York radio station. On August 12th, “Crush” became available on iTunes, where it rose to the #1 position within 24 hours. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 only behind Rihanna’s “Disturbia” It’s the best chart debut in more than 18 months. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the track sold 166,000 downloads in the United States.
He was a co-presenter at the 2008 Teen Choice Awards on 4th August 2008. He also won the Teen Choice surfboard for “Most Fanatic Fans”.
To date, his self-titled debut album, “David Archuleta” have gone Gold with over 500 000 copies sold since its release in November 2008 and his debut single, “Crush” has gone Platinum with close to 1.5 Million copies sold. His 2nd & latest single, “A Little Too Not Over You”, which he co-wrote is making its way up the charts.
